The 7th Chamber recently released its top 10 “Don’t” recommendations for marketing executives in 2013.
- Don’t use hashtag campaigns if you’re a brand that has caused any kind of controversy in the past 10 years. Twitter really is still the “Wild West” and a very unforgiving place to allow your audience free range. McDonalds recently fell prey to this.
- Don’t think that just because you have 5 million Facebook “Likes” and 1 million Twitter followers the world loves you. Don’t be fooled into believing you have an open slate to do what you want in social media just because you’re popular on it. The amount of your “registered” fans is still incredibly low relative to the size of your audience.
- Don’t ask people to “Like” you on Facebook without giving them something special in return. We see too many brands putting up barriers to entry to get engagement without rewarding that action. Give fans a reason to “Like” you.
- Don’t build a Facebook app that requires more than three steps to activate it. There are some great apps out there that people would download, but given too many steps, they just switch out before completion. Ask them for the basics, and then later on, ask them for more data if you REALLY need it. Not just because you THINK you might need it.
- Don’t just buy YouTube advertising to support a video campaign. The site only counts for 30% of video streams. Too many clients who focus solely on YouTube lose out on efficiency and reach — spread the love to other networks.
- Don’t use incentivized media to buy Facebook “Likes” or Twitter followers. You’ll just push your engagement score down and your spam up. Most people will unlike you once they get what they want. Through smart tactics and good content, you can achieve both quality AND quantity.
- Don’t rely on one influence measurement tool to measure your well-paid influencer. Most of the tools out there are just indicative, try using three; you’ll get more information and better targeting.
- Don’t expect your well-paid Twitter influencer not to bury your “sponsored tweet” with at least 5 other tweets within 5 minutes of posting yours. There’s a lot of guns for hire who have huge followings, but they don’t like to be seen as “selling out” so they will bury your tweet quickly; make sure they don’t tweet for at least 8 hours after they post your tweet.
- Don’t expect web banners to drive your audience to a Facebook page AND get them to like it AND upload a picture or make a film. People are lazy; they need to be led down the garden path to interact with your brand and take time out of their day to take an action. Use a company that facilitates/guarantees this type of promotion; don’t rely on chance.
- Don’t pull a campaign if it gets negative press — ride it out. Brands who think they can control social media by shutting down only fuel the flames. Allow your campaigns to trail off. People will respect you more for getting it wrong than trying to hide your mistakes.